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1996-05-30
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Foreign Correspondent
Inside Track On World News
By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>
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Prisoners who miss their jail
By
Eric Margolis 30 May 1996
SAN FRANCISCO - Twenty years ago, the Maoist anthem, `The
East Is Red' echoed around the Pacific Rim. Asia then
seemed destined to fall to communism.
Today, communism is fading everywhere in Asia. Ironically, ,
parts of the West are now threatened with going Red. I'm
speaking, of course, about East Europe, where communists,
who style themselves `democratic socialists,' have pretty
well managed to regain power after the Soviet Empire
collapsed in 1991.
Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria have elected
governments dominated by former communists. Romania and
Serbia are still ruled by pre-1991 communists. Most of the
break-away parts of the old USSR are still run by updated
communists.
What really occured after the Soviet collapse in 1991 was
not the much ballyhooed `death of communism,' but rather a
generational revolution. Out went the Old Guard of grim,
geriatric communist bosses in baggy suits and fedoras. In
came a younger generation of smiling, blow-dried Bolsheviki
in Armani suits.
Fed up with economic austerity, short-memoried east
Europeans turned back to the `reformed' communists. The most
outrageous example of this reversion is Albania. There,
support for the resurgent communists reached an astounding
40% in some recent, pre-electoral polls. This tells us
something very nasty about human nature.
Last Sunday, Albania's 2 million voters went to the polls.
Just before voting began, the Socialist Party (the renamed
Communists) and smaller parties pulled out of the election,
producing chaos. The communists, who rigged votes for 50
years and shot or jailed all opponents, had the chuzpah to
accuse the ruling Democrat Party of intimidation and fraud.
The communists' real motive was to avoid certain defeat. So
the Reds went off to sulk. Albania's capable President Sali
Berisha and his Democrats won the unopposed and utterly
chaotic election.
But how, I ask, could any Albanian vote communist? Albania
was ruled for nearly 50 years by a Stalinist dictator, Enver
Hoxah, who turned this tiny Balkan nation into a huge
concentration camp. There was one secret policeman for
every ten people, and hundreds of thousands of political
prisoners. Chrome was mined by slave labor. . Barbed wire,
watchtowers and minefields surrounded the country. The
despot Hoxah outlawed all religions, forcing Albanians to
worship him as a god.
I have visited most of the world's horrible nations, but
Albania in the 70's was the most frightening, depressing,
nightmarish place I have ever seen. Albania was reduced to
abject squalor and misery, a nation of rags.
Yet, incredibly, more than a third of Albanians still
support the communists.? How can this be?
Those who fed heartily off the communist state apparatus
yearn for the old days: Party bigwigs, bureaucrats, official
artists and tame intellectuals, film makers, teachers,
diplomats, the military, and secret police.
Many East Europeans who were reared under ubiquitous state
control have no understanding of real work, and are unable
to function in a free-market economy. Under communism,
connections, not personal initiative, were the key to
success. Albanians still suffer that curse of all communist
societies, envy of people who have more.
Instead of emulating those who succeed, numerous East
Europeans yearn for a return of the secret police so they
can denounce their better-off neighbors. Anti-communists,
meanwhile, make sure that all jobs and perks go to family,
friends and non-communists, further deepening the rift.
East Europeans reared under communism mistakenly believe
that reports, speeches, meetings and dialectics equate to
economic action. They don't yet understand the need to make
and sell things other peoples want.
Many long-term convicts come to thrive behind bears; after
years, they can't live on the outside. Better a big man in
the jailyard than a nobody on the street. That, alas, is
what has befallen East Europeans. Too many long for the
security of their old prisons.
copyright Eric Margolis 1996
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